Max Sawicky wrote:
>
> I believe all the horrible things that people have been saying about
> WWP/IAC, but I have to say that the latter have a better slant on A20
> than their more wholesome peers.
>
> The IAC site says explicitly their demo is to
> "oppose the Bush/Sharon war on Palestinians."
> I don't doubt that there is lots of stuff underneath
> that I wouldn't like, but by contrast from the coalition's
> web site we have the headline:
>
> "Stop the war at home and abroad," and in the
> call to action we are told:
>
> "A U.S. foreign policy based upon social and economic
> justice, not military and corporate oppression."
>
> "The war" in question is evidently Afghanistan and the
> possible invasion of Iraq. There is nothing about the ME,
> which at the moment is the leading edge of whatever
> Bush has in store in the war on terror (sic).
>
> The 'call to action' thing is mush. It is accompanied
> by stuff about financial aid to students and military
> contracts with universities.
>
> On the strength of these presentations, any Third World
> student with 10 percent brain function would gravitate
> to the IAC contingent. The non-IAC side seems afraid
> of the Palestinian question.
>
> Maybe I'm too old and grouchy for the movement.
I'm sure that the coalition's call to action was written by a group of people, whereas the IAC stuff was probably written by a few or one person.
Yes, it's good to hear strong language condemning the current atrocities in occupied Palestine, but it has to be put into context. The IAC has a long track record of shallow anti-imperialism. They will support dictators and brutal governments of countries being attacked by the U.S., simply because they are fighting back against the United States. They don't understand the difference between supporting a population against imperialism and supporting theri government against the U.S. In many cases, those government where former U.S. clients who engaged in all kinds of crap against their people. Iraq is a good example.
I'll also throw in the IAC's support for the Chinese crackdown against the student democracy movement.
Another problem with the IAC statement is that it personifies the conflict: "the Bush/Sharon war on Palestinians." This implies that a change in leaders would solve the conflict (perhaps in this case, with these two crazy guys, it might), but we all know that there has been a long-standing support of the U.S. for Israel. The Clinton regime is just as complicit with their "peace process" in manufacturing the current crisis as the Bush regime is.
I have to wonder if the IAC would be as vocal against a Democratic adminsitration.
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